Students Get Hands-On Experience with Nanoscience Program

Students studying nanotechnology at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) have a new way to explore concepts about the nanoscale.The New Haven, CT institution has implemented a new program that enables students to create and work with nanoscale structures without the need for a cleanroom.

SCSU recently deployed NanoProfessor, a nanoscience education program designed to give students hands-on experience with nanoscale lab work. The program comes with desktop nanofabrication instruments and curriculum written by experts and educators from the nanotechnology field, according to a prepared statement released this week by the company. Funding for NanoProfessor came from a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

NanoProfessor will be used in combination with the curriculum already in place at SCSU, said Christine Caragianis Broadbridge, professor and chair of Physics at the university. "NanoProfessor’s curriculum will complement our existing curriculum," explained Broadbridge in the prepared statement, "by engaging students with cutting-edge, hands-on, nano-focused experiments designed to teach them important scientific concepts about the nanoscale." The curriculum and nanofabrication system will reside at the nanotechnology research center located in the university's Physics Department.

Southern Connecticut State University, with more than 11,000 students and 1,000 faculty members, offers 114 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a range of fields and disciplines.